http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-lazo26apr26,1,7294353.story
COMMENTARY
Trusted in Iraq, Barred From Cuba
A
cruel policy keeps me from seeing my sons.
By Carlos Lazo
Carlos Lazo is a sergeant in the National Guard.
April 26, 2005
I joined the Army National Guard and proudly served as a combat medic in
Iraq, in gratitude to a nation that has given me the opportunity to live my
dreams since I arrived here from Cuba on a fragile wooden raft. I also
joined to teach my teenage sons in Cuba a lesson about freedom and
responsibility, and about how important it is to give back. But since the
rules for travel to Cuba were abruptly tightened last summer, my boys are
learning a different lesson: that even in America, political calculation can
trump human rights, and that a small minority of extremist voices can be
enough to keep a family apart.
I risked my life to come to the United States in 1992 for the same reasons
immigrants have always come to these shores: to taste freedom, to take
advantage of the economic opportunities and to build a better life for the
people I cared about.
I have been fortunate; I have been able to realize my dreams. After
establishing myself in Miami, I returned to school, earning my counseling
certification. I moved to Seattle, where I had a great job counseling people
with developmental disabilities.
But when an earthquake struck Washington state and I saw how people pulled
together to help one another, I realized that I wanted to help my state and
the nation that had given so much to me. At 35, I joined the National Guard.
During this time, I kept in contact with my children in Cuba — visiting,
sending money to support them and following their growth and adventures as
best I could. My last trip to Cuba in 2003 was three days of love and
roughhousing. We hardly slept, we never stopped smiling. I couldn't wait to
see them again.
In November 2003, my Guard unit was called up and I was deployed to Camp
Anaconda, north of Baghdad. During my first R & R break, in June 2004, I
flew to Miami, where I boarded a charter flight to Cuba. There was a special
urgency about this visit. I was serving in a war zone, where U.S. troops
were being attacked and killed almost every day.
But I was not allowed to fly to Havana. The Bush administration had recently
announced its intention to severely limit travel to Cuba, even for family
visits, to once every three years. Even though I arrived in Miami two days
before the travel restrictions went into effect on June 30, the charter
company said it was not allowed to take any more passengers to Cuba.
The calculations behind the travel restriction were simple. While U.S.
troops were trying to bring democracy to Iraq, President Bush was trying to
ensure his reelection by catering to a small but politically powerful group
of anti-Castro extremists who demand complete isolation of Cuba as the price
of their support. Bush met their demands, but it is average Cubans, and
families like mine, that have paid the price.
Last November, I provided support for the Marine assault on Fallouja,
rushing torn and bloody young men to field hospitals and starting those who
had given their lives on their last, long voyage home. The carnage was
horrifying, like nothing I could ever have imagined. But the thought of
seeing my sons again, the knowledge that my actions would help others see
their loved ones again, kept me going.
But I have not seen them since April 2003, and unless this ludicrous law is
changed, I will not see them again until 2006.
I was proud to serve. My children would be proud, too, to hear what
Americans will do for the cause of freedom. But the administration that
trusted me in battle in Iraq does not trust me to visit my children in Cuba.
I am in Washington this week to exercise my rights — as a veteran and as a
proud Cuban American — to ask that my right to travel to Cuba, and the
rights of all Americans to travel to the island, be restored. That would
send a powerful message of liberty and freedom to my sons and to people
everywhere.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-le-trek5.2may05,1,27867.story"
Let Cuban Americans Visit Their Families
LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
May 5, 2005
Re "Trusted in Iraq, Barred From Cuba," Commentary, April 26: As a Cuban American who proudly served this country in the U.S. Air Force, I salute Sgt. Carlos Lazo for his courage, honesty and determination to write this column. His courage because as a member of the National Guard it is not easy to criticize your commander in chief, and his honesty by telling the truth like it is.
This absurd and inhumane policy benefits no one, except perhaps the egos of a few extremists in South Florida.
I have two sisters and a nephew in Cuba, but my son and daughter cannot go there to visit their aunts and cousin because under President Bush's new regulations, "aunties and cousins" do not exist.
What a farce and hypocrisy when we speak of family values.
Joe Perez
Santa Monica
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